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Frank Shankwitz is one of the founders of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Former Arizona Highway Patrol Officer Dies at 77
Frank Shankwitz, co-founder of the Make-A-Wish Association and former Arizona State Soldier, has passed away.
The Make-A-Wish organization has confirmed that Shankwitz died at his home in Prescott of esophageal cancer. He was 77 years old.
Make-A-Wish is known to grant wishes for children with serious illnesses. The “wishes” range from trips to day experiences.
The organization was formed in 1980 after Shankwitz and five others helped a seven-year-old Phoenix battling leukemia become a highway patrol officer for a day.
Shankwitz was also initially President and CEO.
The charity estimates that it has helped fulfill the wishes of more than 500,000 children. It has grown to 60 chapters nationwide.
Frank Shankwitz was a member of the Arizona Highway Patrol’s ten-man tactical unit, which covered the entire state on motorcycles. He was in the police department for 42 years before retiring in 2014. He started Make-A-Wish in 1980.
Shankwitz was a patrol officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety from 1972 until his retirement in 1996, according to the state agency. He is pictured in 2019
Shankwitz was a patrol officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety from 1972 until his retirement in 1996, according to the state agency.
He remained a reserve detective, but also worked for the Special Investigations Office of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division. In all, he worked 42 years in the police force.
The idea for Make-A-Wish started with a terminally ill boy who only had one week to live.
His last wish was to become a police officer and it’s up to Shankwitz to help him.
Shankwitz was on patrol one afternoon when the dispatcher called him and ordered him to find the nearest pay phone as soon as possible – his commanders at the station had an important message for him.
Frank Shankwitz shows his motorbike to Chris Greicius. The police department had a tailor-made uniform created for Greicius; the store owner and two employees stayed up all night sewing to get it finished on time. Chris died a few days later
Frank Shankwitz is pictured with Chris Greicius, the 7-year-old boy who inspired him to help start the Make-a-Wish Foundation
Chris Greicius poses in his police uniform on his motorcycle
“ I called thinking I was having issues with something, ” he recalls in an interview with DailyMail.com in 2019.
Instead, a customs officer named Tom Austin asked him for a favor, who had befriended a little boy named Chris Greicius with leukemia.
Chris’s heroes were Ponch and John from the hit California Highway Patrol TV show CHiPS and his only wish was to meet a real motorcycle cop.
They arranged to pick up Chris from the hospital in the helicopter and took him to the police headquarters in Phoenix.
“As the helicopter approached… I could look up and see the face of this child pressed against the glass, watching a big smile on his face,” said Shankwitz, who expected paramedics to help him. once they have landed.
Instead, Chris walked through the door energetically, “He was laughing and giggling, running around.” He couldn’t contain his excitement. Shankwitz remembers looking at Chris’ mother crying, “I couldn’t understand why at first. Then it occurred to me, she found her seven year old child.
Shankwitz Police Sergeant sits with Chris Greicius, the seven year old boy with leukemia whose last wish was to become a motorcycle cop like his heroes on the CHiPS TV show
Chris’s dream was to be a motorcycle officer, and the station ordered a set of “wings” – the silver badge all motorcycle cops wear pinned to their uniform.
Before they had a chance to introduce him to him, Chris took a devastating turn for the worse and fell into a coma.
Shankwitz rushed to the hospital and pinned it to his little bespoke uniform that hung near his bedside – he became Arizona’s first and only honorary highway patrol officer. He died a few days later.
Coming back from Chris’s funeral, Shankwitz came up with the idea for Make-A-Wish: “I started to think, here’s a boy who had a wish and we made it happen. Why can’t we do this for other children? And that’s where the idea for Make-A-Wish was born.
The life of Frank Shankwitz was dramatized last year in the movie Wish Man
Getting Make-A-Wish off the ground wasn’t easy, but Shankwitz’s work ethic helped move the project forward as he continued to work full-time in the police department while trying to balance the non-profit organization in 20 hours long days.
After 18 months, Shankwitz made the decision to hand over the reins to more capable hands. “ I was also in narcotics at the time, I couldn’t have my face and my name stuck all over the place anymore. ”
Shankwitz knew he needed professional help from the nonprofit world: “You’ve heard the phrase, ‘You surround yourself with people smarter than you’, haven’t you? It was the best decision the council made at the time.
They started hiring people who had the right experience, background and contacts to transform Make-A-Wish into what it is today – a global non-profit organization in 50 countries around the world. which has helped grant more than 334,000 wishes.
Frank Shankwitz is pictured at the premiere of his film, Wish Man, which debuted in 2019
Andrew Steele, who plays Frank Shankwitz speaks to young actor playing Chris Greicius during a poignant scene in the movie, Wish Man, released in 2019
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